chvndlr

[chvndlr]

who? @elliot-newman where? merrock pride 2024 when? later in the day

Pride and rainbow-themed partying were pretty synonymous in Chandler's head. Yeah, there was lots of history with riots and oppression. Some parts of the community were under major threat these days, and that was all certainly important. But between the nightclub and the festival, Chandler didn't plan on spending a lot of time in a sober mental state this weekend. The only problem was, Merrock Pride was a dry event. Gross. What was the point of celebration without booze? His solution was to sneak vodka in a water bottle, find a booth selling really good lemonade, and find an area nobody would notice him combining the two. With Pride being a non-alcoholic event, he knew to be careful about how much he drank. He hadn't brought enough alcohol to get completely wasted, but by the mid-afternoon he was just drunk enough to feel it but not act like a complete idiot. Noticing Elliot, he walked over and tapped his friend on the shoulder to get his attention. "Hey, enjoying Pride?" He asked in just ASL, his signs a little bit looser than normal but still easy to undestand.

#alcoholism tw #(elliot.) #(pride 24.)

[chvndlr]

"So how did you mean it?" Chandler asked curiously, an amused smile on his face. Theo seemed a little embarrassed about it now, but Chandler wasn't easily offended by dumb stuff like that. "I'm guessing the comments were in line with everything else you've said about them, like...tearing you guys down and shit?" He asked, feeling a pang of empathy at the mention of not wanting his kids exposed to what he had been through. Chandler had decided a long time ago that his way of breaking the cycles of trauma and abuse was to never become a parent. It wasn't something he felt any desire to do, so the only way it would happen was if he accidentally knocked a girl up. A happy side effect of being bi with a preference towards the same sex was that he'd probably never deal with that situation. "Did you ever worry that you'd turn out like your own parents? Especially with your own kids? I don't want kids but if it somehow happened....I'm too much like my dad to not completely fuck them up."

After cutting his parents off, Theo had never looked back. It had been something that was enviable, finally coming to a fruition once in college. And he never once regretted that decision, especially since having his own family. "Ah," he replied with a nod as Chandler explained how he had a complicated relationship with his own parents. "Nah, I didn't mean it that way," Theo replied, feeling a bit embarrassed at how his comment probably sounded. He meant how Chandler wasn't snobby or stuck up nor did he even seem like he could even be that kind of guy at one point or another. "That's part of it. That and the way they always handled raising the four of us," he began, pondering about how much to divulge. "Between the way they treated us, their comments, and then when it trickled down to my own kids. I just didn't want my kids to be exposed to what I went through." He said softly. He didn't mention what had happened with his sister which was basically the breaking point of an already strained relationship. "I see, and that's good. Honestly I don't even think my parents care that none of us talk to them. Or at least not anymore anyway." Frankly he didn't care if they cared or not. He was over it and he had built up a great life without them. He just knew that he cared for his own kids more than his father ever had or ever would. And that he also only considered his siblings to be his real family. "Oh," he said quietly, not really sure what else to say.

#abuse tw #(theo.)

[chvndlr]

As the brunette closed up her container of fruit, Chandler thought she was definitely about to leave. Even though he was enjoying their conversation, he didn't get the feeling that it was mutual. So as she relaxed into the bench, he was pleasantly surprised but made no mention of it to her.

"I didn't know that, but that's good." Chandler had a strange dynamic with hospitals. They didn't bother him, as he regularly visited the one his mom worked at. It was more peaceful than hanging out at home most of the time, and he was happy so long as he had a GameBoy. But he was no longer on his parents' medical insurance, so it had been quite some time since he had seen a doctor. He had no idea what any of that looked like in Merrock. "My mom works at a big hospital in Minnesota. They didn't have that - you had to take a bus or an uber to get to appointments there. From where we lived it was an hour and a half one way, but I rode the route a lot before I got my license." He thought back to his trips into the city by himself with a small smile. Honestly, he was too young to be traveling alone in a major city when he lived in the suburbs. But he was pretty sure his parents never really noticed -- and if they did, they never explained to him why he shouldn't be doing it. "We did have a bus line in and out of town, but it wasn't really useful for getting anywhere in town. I just think there's no reason America has to double down on cars as hard as we do. You talk about people not being able to afford generators but a reliable car is just as expensive and then you have to put gas in it and get insurance....Surely you have the compassion to want people to have a more affordable option." He threw in the last part to both show that he was capable of caring about other people, and to remind her of what she'd previously said to him. But as she suggested he fight for it at town hall, he scrunched his nose. "Not gonna lie, a town hall meeting sounds boring as shit."

She continued to argue about winter being more dangerous, but he had a few counterpoints. "I mean...if your power goes out in the winter then your food can stay good for a little while. Summer's where that's a bigger problem. Besides, summer power outages are way more common and there's people who rely on electricity to power ventilators or other super important medical shit. As she teased him about not having enough compassion, he shrugged but smiled back at the snark from her. He then edited the note on his phone to fix the two flowers he got wrong. "You're not fucking with me and telling me some super hard to take care of shit, right? As revenge for me not feeling bad for slow drivers?"

"Suit yourself," she closed up her fruit, shrugging both shoulders, and tucked the box into her bag, relaxing back onto the bench again. If he didn't want to care about others, she wasn't going to force him, but she also wasn't going to humor someone who wrote off others anxieties or worries, either. Life was too short to be mean, in her mind.

"I get it, I do," she started, pausing as she thought over her time in Merrock, "and for what it's worth, I volunteer at the nursing home a lot, and there actually are transit vans that you can call for rides to and from medical appointments, the hospital, the home, for a pretty low cost, too." She could remember her abuela saying that they smelled a bit like butterscotch candies, that she would rather just hitch a ride with her granddaughter when she needed to go from place to place, but they were there. "I just think… you grew up in a place where that was common, maybe? I don't want to assume. If so, I completely understand why you think it would be beneficial. But you don't see that in small towns like this. I don't think you will. But hey, go to the next town hall and fight for it, you never know."

Raising a brow at his surprise, and insistence that everyone had them where he grew up, she kept her lips pressed firmly together, torn between reminding him why it was a good idea not to make assumptions about others, and throwing her hands in the air before letting out a sigh. "Hence why a lot of people don't like winter. The power goes out and for them, it's not as easy as flipping a switch. They lose all the food in their freezer, they have nothing to heat themselves, they can't even run hot water -- thankfully, the community center and town hall do have generators so people can get help." A small, almost teasing smile crossed her lips, "this is where that little thing called compassion comes into play." But then as he told her to slow down when it came to flowers, she shook her head. "Flowering sedum," she corrected, "and hostas."

#(lena.)

[chvndlr]

"I'm an only child, so if I didn't cook then there wasn't really anything to eat." Chandler explained. He grimaced at the explanation that the two were in the same program. "Yikes. My big bad college ex was a dance major, and I…don't dance. At all. So that wasn't an issue. But he went to the same parties I did, and we'd see each other around campus. The girl I was dating by then wasn't too thrilled about that."

"For sure," Jamie nodded. "Makes sense," he smiled. "My mom loves to cook, so even growing up with five kids, there was always something in the kitchen," he said. "She still loves to cook. But I just said that," he laughed. "Yeah, it was kinda bad. We were in the same program. So classes, labs, those extra clinic sessions we had to sit in. But yeah. Luckily, we didn't have any other excuse to see each other after that outside of class. I moved in with one of my other friends and it was a doozy. Fun times, right?"

#(jamie.)

[chvndlr]

As Elliot reached for his phone, a frown tugged at Chandler's mouth. If his signing was going to get any better, he needed to practice more. But once he read what Elliot had typed out, he realized he never would have understood all of that in ASL. Still, Chandler stuck with speaking and adding in the signs that he knew. He chose his words carefully to try to say things he could sign. "I'm cool with smores and watching the stars. Maybe walking, too. I don't think I've read in a few years, though." He admitted with a shrug.

Elliot leaned back in his chair some, hands resting on his stomach, eyes on Chandler. The smallest quirk of his eyebrows as he watched the other take another large swig of his drink. He had no right to judge or question but something about the moment and the way he seemed to be knocking back his drink felt off to Elliot. Which seemed to be proved the smallest amount as Chandler said that the alcohol would help. For the time being though, Elliot ignored it, wondering if signing or texting would be easier so he grabbed for his phone. Loads of things to do to relax out here. Roasting s'mores, reading by the campfire, going for a walk, watching the stars, just laying out and being- taking in the beauty around us. Waving a hand around their current spot, the corner of his lips quirking up into a soft smile.

#(elliot.)

[chvndlr]

"Yeah, that's a good point." Chandler shrugged, smiling at her 'science' joke. Even if it was explained to him, he probably wouldn't fully understand it. Blah blah blah boiling point blah blah blah optimal temperature. But it might have helped him remember the random numbers a bit more clearly in the short term. "We have to serve everything in to-go cups because of US food safety laws. That's why there's a distinct cafe ordering area with some seating, and then the cat room is in the next storefront with its own entrance and exit. But obviously we have the door that connects them inside too." He said, gesturing to the 'shortcut' to the cat room. He then added a dash of milk and a little sugar to the tea, before handing it to Nari. "Well, what do you think, Professor Gim?"

"You will," she nodded her head. "I think it's one of those things where you don't have to understand why, you just have to understand that it is," she lifted both hands, wiggling her fingers a little bit as she spoke while letting out a laugh, "you know, science." Nari was pretty sure that if he headed down to What's the Tea and talked to someone who did this for a living, really knew what they were talking about, he could get a whole lecture about why things worked at certain heats and with certain preparation methods, but Nari just knew that she liked tea. "Good idea," she nodded her head eagerly. It might have been a mess, otherwise, but she was sure that there were things they had to follow to strict measures.

Relaxing back into her chair, Nari took a moment to check her phone, making sure she hadn't missed any calls from work or any voicemails from clients before glancing up when Chandler asked about milk or sugar, see-sawing her head back and forth. "Little of both, please, but not too much." She didn't want to overwhelm the tea flavor completely, after all.

#(nari.)

[chvndlr]

"I'm guessing from your stand here that you are a beekeeper or something?" Chandler asked, picking up a jar of honey and examining it. "I've got nothing against bees, but my body does. Last time I got stung, my arm ballooned up and I got hives." He explained. As she offered him a sticker - something that looked cute and couldn't sting him - he shrugged. "I guess it would be ironic to put this on my water bottle, right?"

open starter at the farmer's market

on world bee day

"As a matter of fact, it is my favorite non-holiday holiday." Cheyenne nodded with a wide grin. She carefully put the jar of honey into a bag that so that it wouldn't clang around. At the current moment, she had a crate of jar and they rattled and the noise drove her insane. Even if she wasn't really all that sane to begin with. "You want a sticker?" Her nose crinkled with pure childish joy a her little holographic bee stickers. "They're really cute."

#(cheyenne.)

[chvndlr]

"You sports people make no sense." Chandler groaned. At this point they were both talking in circles and he was ready to drop the subject altogether. He smiled as JD suggested they make the rest of 2024 good. "Yeah, we need to. Party more often, make up for lost time." Once the coaster was tossed at him, he flinched and immediately felt stupid at his involuntary reaction. He tried to quickly blow past it before JD could comment. "You did promise you were buying drinks tonight for my birthday, so if we're calling it a night already then we gotta go all out tomorrow. And you're still paying. You're not getting off that easy."

Letting out a loud exhale after the shot, JD could really start to feel the effects of the night. He was at the point where he wouldn't mind closing out the tab and just have some fun with Chandler, whatever that may entail. "Whatever," he said laughing, waving Chandler off, "but like it's more fun to beat someone when you know they're good too." He shrugged, not knowing how else to explain it and being way passed a point where he had the brain capacity to get into it. Nodding along, he felt the same. "Same here, but we can make the rest of 2024 a good one." He suggested, playfully rubbing his friend, and wiggling his eyebrows at the same point. Sipping on the last of his beer, he nodded along as Chandler spoke. "Yeah that'd be fucked up," he agreed, but he knew that wasn't something Chandler would do. He didn't feel like his friend was that type of guy, or least he hoped he wasn't. Shooting Chandler a look, he tossed a coaster at his friend like a Frisbee, as he laughed in a playful mocking tone. "I mean you've been out for a long time. Wanted to make sure you hadn't forgotten. Speaking of which, I'm down to get out of here and find a new place for some fun. Or call it a night and do it all over again tomorrow."

#(jd.)

[chvndlr]

"Hard pass" Chandler blurted out. Setting personal boundaries was not his strong suit, and sympathizing with other peoples' situations had left him in vulnerable positions far too many times for him to do it easily again. Obviously he couldn't get too wrapped up in the life of the stranger driving ten miles under the speed limit in front of him, but it didn't stop him from having a knee jerk reaction to Lena's suggestion.

Chandler shook his head at her saying public transit wasn't realistic in Merrock. "As fun as the Christmas train ride sounds, that's not what I'm talking about. I can't imagine some New York City subway system here either. But you wouldn't need any infrastructure changes to have a shuttle system that gets people to appointments at the hospital, and it wouldn't take that much to do a small bus route between downtown, the lighthouse, the community center or somewhere else in the suburbs, and the Hideaway Market. One bus, one route. Could even try it out with a passenger van or something before committing to a whole bus." At this point, he was more thinking out loud to himself. It sounded like a great idea to him. For a small town, it really had a lot of diversity and it'd be nice to rely on a car less often.

"Several thousand?" Chandler asked, clearly surprised. "I -- how? I swear everyone had them when I was growing up!" He decided to leave out that he grew up in a wealthy suburb, but his statement probably gave that fact away anyways. As she pointed out peoples' priorities were on eating, he sighed ."Yeah, shit. I get why not everyone has them now. I thought a high quality one would be around a thousand. Fuck!" When she started listing off different things he could grow, he quickly whipped out his phone and wrote down as many of them as he could, but he hadn't heard half of these plant names before. "Slow down, I got juniper, Burberry, flower serum, peonies and I forget what you said but my phone autocorrected it to 'hosted' so....something like that"

"You could try to have a little bit of compassion, I'll leave it at that," she wasn't in the mood to spend her break arguing with someone who seemed like they had a snarky reply for everything that she said, she'd rather watch the grass grow than be mean-spirited towards anyone. "It is a different can of worms," she agreed with a nod, "and probably not something that's sustainable in a town like Merrock, either. The infrastructure alone would be… a lot. Minus the railway. I do like the train rides at Christmas." But it wasn't really built to be the kind of train that carried people all the time, either.

Rolling her eyes as he agreed to buy the generator that someone needed, she shot him a flabbergasted look. "Because they cost several thousand dollars, and most people can't afford to just put up that sort of money when they have bills to pay and mouths to feed, that's why not," she explained, wondering if he genuinely had no clue, or was the kind of person that just had never had to worry. Lena couldn't talk all that much; she herself had been raised well off, didn't worry for too much, but she had been humbled growing up in her small hometown, lived within her own means whenever possible. "Easy to grow stuff," she suggested after a moment, shrugging her shoulders. "Junipers, hostas, barberry. Go with stuff like peonies, phlox, flowering sedum, dianthus for color."

#(lena.)

[chvndlr]

"Yeah, I guess the temperatures and steeping time just feel a little intimidating. I don't get why it's different for each type of tea, but I'm sure I'll get used to it." Chandler shrugged. He was grateful to not be working at What's the Tea right now, but then....he could probably make a better cup of coffee than the people who worked there. As she mentioned drinking tea with cat fur in it, he chuckled. "That's why we recommend you use disposable cups with lids here." He replied. Because of US health code laws, technically everything in the cafe was served to-go and the animals had to be kept out of the area people ordered and ate their food.

As Nari said she wanted lady grey, Chandler nodded and took the piece of paper. "100 degrees, 4 minutes." He whispered to himself once, then listened to the words play in a loop in his head. He didn't have any trouble setting the electronic kettle to 100. While he waited for that, he selected the correct tea and got ready to set the electronic timer next to the kettle. About five minutes later, he was just about done. "Do you want milk or sugar with that?" He asked.

Craning her neck to see what he had jotted down on the paper, she nodded her head to herself, going over everything mentally. "Looks like it. I'm going to be honest with you, though -- try not to stress it too much. If you're off a little bit, as long as it tastes close to what people want, they're not going to be mad at you. Here," she gestured around the business. "If you were working at What's the Tea, I feel like you can't make mistakes, that's a tea shop. But I mean, personally? I'd drink my tea with cat fur floating in it, so I'm not going to worry if there's a little too much lemon in it." Granted, Nari was also pretty easy to please, but … eh, she didn't see him having problems. "Let's go with Lady Grey, this time."

#(nari.)

[chvndlr]

Chandler noticed Elliot only took a sip before setting it down, but he also figured that was none of his business. He always wanted people to drink with him, but he refused to be pushy and force people to do it. It wasn't like his drinking was so bad he needed to 'look normal'; the only people who knew he had a problem were people he had told. So he said nothing and took a much larger drink from his own glass. Elliot referred to all of this as relaxing, and Chandler raised his eyebrow in doubt. He liked hiking, but not with all the extra stuff they had to take with them. Cooking had been fun, but he was so worried about doing it right that he wasn't sure it relaxed him the way it normally did tonight. "When I'm not hiding in the woods, cooking is relaxing. But I've never cooked using a fire before, so I don't know if I feel relaxed now. And I play video games, but I didn't bring my Switch out here. But the alcohol will help." He held up his glass and then took another drink. "What do you normally do to relax out here?"

@elliot-newman

Chandler was not particularly excited to go camping, but it had become quite clear to him over the winter that many of his friends loved it, and were going to drag him out at least once this year. He already knew he didn't love it, being much more of an indoorsy city person than a middle-of-nowhere kind of guy. Growing up, he was romantically involved with a guy who's family had a cabin in Northern Minnesota. Chan often went up there with him for privacy, or to get a break from his parents for a couple days, but a few friends had told him a cabin with electricity and gas didn't count as camping.

For his trip with Elliot, he had chosen to focus on one positive; he had never cooked on a campfire before. He didn't actually know how to start a fire, but he figured Elliot could do that part and then Chandler could take over from there. He had a lot of things planned for their short time in the woods. Especially the first night, while things were still kept cold in his cooler.

Once they (mostly Elliot) set up camp, Chandler got to work on dinner. It wasn't long before they had chicken wings smoked on the campfire, and the amateur chef was even impressed with himself that he was able to make anything without a stove or his usual kitchen setup. After handing Elliot his meal, he produced two camping friendly wine glasses and a hydroflask of whiskey. This wasn't his go-to alcohol but he figured it fit the mood better. He poured each of them a glass, then handed one off to his friend.

"So, after we eat, we can relax?" Chandler asked, not sure what people actually did out in the woods besides get drunk and tell ghost stories.

#(elliot.) #alcoholism tw

[chvndlr]

"And some of us are raw dogging our anxiety at other times," He candidly admitted in an otherwise unsympathetic statement. "But that doesn't mean it has to be everyone else's problem. Besides, if you're that anxious on the roads, I really don't think you should be manning a vehicle that can kill someone or cause a major accident. Which wouldn't be such an issue if this country had decent public transit, but that's a whole other can of worms I'm not sure we wanna get into." Chandler felt like they'd probably agree on that topic, at least.

She suggested he buy someone a generator and he shrugged. "Sure, why not?" He only agreed because he had no idea how much they cost. A couple hundred, maybe? Enough that he hoped she wouldn't take him up on the offer, but cheap enough that he could do it. "There's not wanting to get stung by a bee, and then there's not knowing if it could kill me. Besides, I like bees. They're good for the environment. I just don't wanna get offed in sacrifice of the greater good." Chandler joked. "I actually don't. When I first got to town, didn't plan on hanging around long enough to get comfortable. But I decided this winter that I actually wanna stay. I know I should probably plant some shit this spring, but I have no idea where to start."

"That's not very fair," she chided him gently, "some people have anxiety when it comes to driving, or being on the roads at a time when conditions are less than ideal. And unfortunately, staying home isn't an option if they have to be at work, or have an emergency, you know?" If something was scary, it was scary, whether you had experienced it for your entire life, or just for the first time. Maybe Elena just had a little more compassion and patience in her than most did when it came to dealing with someone else's insecurities, though.

Brows shot up to her hairline as he replied immediately that generators were available, and she couldn't help but to let out a laugh. "Good! The next time someone loses power and needs a generator, I'll be sure to give them your number, so that you can buy one for them. Easy fix, right?" She could remember pricing them out with her grandmother ahead of the last winter she had been home, thankful that her father had stepped in to purchase it for them, but knowing how frustrating it must have been for anyone else just wanting to keep the refrigerator running, or being able to pour water from the tap. "I wouldn't test that theory either, no," he shook his head. "Sort of one of those deals where even people who like bees don't want to be stung by bees." Allergic or not, pain was pain, and bee stings? Painful. "Mow around it," she laughed, "do you not have any landscaping or flowers at all?"

#(lena.)

[chvndlr]

Chandler glanced at the notes, eyes narrowing at what he had written about temperatures and steep times. He still didn't entirely understand why different teas needed to be brewed differently, but he'd have to find a way to memorize it all. It wasn't too different from figuring out cooking measurements, or how to make the newest seasonal drink on the menu. So while he was a little embarrassed he didn't fully get it yet, he wasn't worried about his ability to figure it out. Wanting to make sure he wrote it all out correctly, he turned it to better face Nari. "Is this right?" He asked. She asked him to make a citrus tea, and he shrugged. "Herbal or one of those Lady Grey teas?" He asked as he stood up and started to walk behind the counter.

WHO: Nari & @chvndlr

WHERE: Pause for Paws

WHEN: springtime

"So, think you've got it down?" Nari asked with a laugh, looking over the sheet of notes that they had collected between them, all about different kinds of teas, how to best make them, what worked and what didn't, and most importantly, what the best flavors were for the spring time, since everyone right now wanted something that reminded them of being outside in the warm sun, soaking it all in. "I should have you make me one of the citrus teas just to try it out, actually. See if you learned something."

#(nari.)

[chvndlr]

Chandler followed JD's lead and downed his shot with the other man. He pulled a face, one he wouldn't have made a few months ago, and then chased it down with his cocktail. Thankfully, despite it being very boozy, the fruit juice hid the taste of it quite well. This would probably be his go-to the rest of the night. "Dude, you literally just said it." Chandler replied, a little tipsy now. "You know you're better than them if you beat them by a lot, too." He groaned with a playful eyeroll, and then had even more of his cocktail. As JD took another shot, so did Chandler. This time, his face didn't twist as much. "I don't know, life has felt very slow the last six months on my end. Hoping the rest of 2024 picks up." He admitted, switching back to his cocktail. "I'm not tied down at all. I mean, it'd be super morally fucked up to cancel on some couple on their wedding day, but when I took a break I just finished up most of the jobs I had already taken, referred a few people out to other Merrock photographers, and then responded to the occasional random email inquiry with a list of other photographers in the area." He explained, then shrugged at JD saying he just needed to get out there. That was already what he was doing, but it would take more than a couple shots to reacquire his taste in alcohol. "Oh, is that how drinking works? Not doing it for a few months made me completely forget the concept of a cocktail" He replied with playful sarcasm

Thanking both Chandler and the bartender for the shots, he paused before downing it. "Me neither but I wasn't gonna say anything." He laughed and picked up the shot glass, shrugging as he spoke. "If you're evenly matched, then you definitely know you're better than them if you beat them." He hadn't really ever thought about it and it was hard to explain, but it was just one of those things with sports. He then followed suit and down his own shot of alcohol, exhaling when finished, placing the glass upside down on the table in front of him. "Life never slows down huh. Guess Ferris Bueller was right after all." He chuckled, slipping in a random movie reference about life moving fast. "That's true, and you're not necessarily tied down like some other jobs right?" He asked, leaning on his bent elbow a bit on the table. JD had so much going on that he hadn't even realized how Chandler's break from photography lined up with the break in partying, instead JD was too happy to have his friend back. Trying to hype Chandler up, JD nodded, "I'd say so. Just gotta get back out there you know. Get your sea legs again." He chuckled a bit, before responding about lighter fluid, "that's why they make flavors and cocktails. So people don't taste the alcohol."

#(jd.) #alcohol tw

[chvndlr]

Chandler nodded carefully as Theo admitted to disowning his parents. He opened his mouth to say 'Same', but stopped himself. Mostly because that wasn't really true - he still talked to them pretty regularly - but it was easier and safer to keep them at arms length. "My relationship with my parents is complicated, too." He offered empathetically instead. He was going to gently press for some more details, but Theo soon was giving some information that sounded connected to his strained relationship with his parents. "I'm…far from rich? So I act broke as shit now?" Chandler laughed. Obviously that's not how Theo had meant that, but he wasn't sure what Theo was actually trying to say and had to give him a hard time. "So…is that why you and your parents don't talk then? The pressure of appearances and all of that?" He gave Theo another sympathetic nod about how his childhood was hard. "Sounds like our childhoods were pretty opposite. My parents....I mean, they care about me." Despite their history, his dad was the one who helped him leave an abusive relationship and restart in Merrock without his ex-girlfriend ever finding out where he was now. "They helped me get back on my feet when I moved here and everything. They're usually there when I really need them. But they never cared if I was doing good in school, or if I was even at school, or what I was doing or who I was hanging out with. My mom just wanted to be my best friend and my dad....he has these moments where I know he could be a really great dad if he wanted to be, but he was a lot more interested in drinking than any of that."

Theo wasn't someone one would think to be full of jokes, but he had a hidden devious side to him. This didn't include dad jokes that he'd tell his kids, or cute little puns he'd slide into conversations. Theo had a side to him that liked practical jokes and liked to make jokes that no one would expect to come from him. "It would be, but I highly doubt it is," in fact he knew it wasn't true because the Browning family couldn't risk something like that getting out anyway. He shrugged, and was about to move on when asked about his parents. Bluntly he stated, "disowned them. Well I think it. might have been mutual but I don't care to be honest." He chuckled nervously, weighing on if he should give Chandler the quick version or just leave it as is. He decided just to leave it, rather focusing on Chandler's childhood rather than his own. "No not at all, honestly I wasn't even sure what to think. But I didn't think you were a rich kid. You're far from that now," he said, gesturing towards the other. Chandler seemed as if he was far from the rich kid trope and Theo definitely couldn't see him as fitting into it. "Oh nice, and at least you didn't have to keep up appearances. Now that was a hard way to grow up," he let it slip that the Browning name meant more than anything to his parents, that and appearances throughout town.

"That's a good one! Some of these writers are incredibly witty," he replied with a chuckle.

#alcoholism tw #abuse tw #(//brief mentions of both.) #(theo.) #(queue.)

[chvndlr]

"Someone had to cook to keep my parents alive. They live off takeout menus now, but I could only help for so long." Chandler shrugged. There had been a point, before he was old enough to have memories of, where they didn't have the kind of money to eat out every night, and he always wondered how his parents managed back then. As Jamie elborated about going to UCLA, Chandler nodded and pretended to understand. He'd never gone to UCLA, so he didn't really understand what the other man meant. "Oh god, dodging exes. The one thing nobody talks about with college! I ran into my exboyfriend a lot after we broke up."

"Still, yeah, I'm umm... impressed cereal," Jamie furrowed his brow and then chuckled. "Yeah, they were really small. It wasn't much, just a sink and space for a microwave," he said. He licked over his lips. "Well, I went to UCLA, so there's plenty of drama to go around. But other than that, it's was mostly me getting into a mess and avoiding my ex at some point."

#(jamie.)

[chvndlr]

"Sure, that works if you're from Florida and just moved here. But people that have lived in cold environments their whole lives? Nah. No pass." Chandler wasn't just arguing for the sake of arguing now, as he stood by what he was saying. The only exception to born-and-bred northerners that couldn't drive in snow were people who had only recently gotten their licenses. He remembered how scary driving on icy roads was the first time he did it.

Although Chandler's childhood had its challenges, he was very privileged in other ways. His family always had a variety of options, which meant he'd never gone without heat for an entire night in his life. "That's what generators are for." He replied, fully not recognizing that wasn't something everyone had access to. As she asked more details about his bee allergy he shrugged. "I got stung once as a kid and I had a pretty bad reaction. A lot of kids grow out of allergies, so who knows if I'm still allergic? I'm sure as hell not testing that theory out on purpose, though." He explained. "Yeah, save the bees and all of that. I'm all for it! I'm just not gonna make my yard safer for bees than for myself. Besides, the kid I hire to mow my lawn wouldn't know what to do with a pollinator garden."

Letting out a breath, Elena knew that any sharp retort was only going to give him more of what he wanted -- which was to get under her skin. And although she would have preferred just relaxing on the bench, enjoying her break, he was there, and he made it clear that he wasn't going to go anywhere. "That's because a lot of people haven't driven in that sort of weather before. Even if they have, it's still scary. And yeah, sure, thunderstorms cause power outages in the summertime, too, but as you pointed out -- this is Maine. Losing AC in the summer sucks, but you open a window. Losing heat in the winter, though…" she trailed off, knowing that she had made her point, and shrugged both shoulders. It wasn't fun to not have heat in the house, remembering maybe long winter nights growing up, pulling down extra blankets for her grandma, sleeping in the big bed to make sure that they both stayed warm. "Badly allergic?" she asked, somewhat curious. She knew it could be a problem for a lot of people. "I'm the opposite. I'm one of those people drawing bees in with pollinator gardens."

#(lena.)